Sanctions did not bring Iran to negotiating table - Zarif

NEW YORK, April 29 (KUNA) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said if the intentions of the imposed sanctions to bring Iran to the negotiating table, then that was not what the US government achieved.
In an interview with Charlie Rose of Public Broadcasting Service, Zarif affirmed today that if the US government wanted to antagonize the Iranian people, to create feelings and misgivings about the US among the general Iranian population, then the sanctions have succeeded.
Zarif blamed the US for abandoning the idea of zero enrichment ten years ago, and affirmed that if they have accepted back then that Iran had the right to enrich, then "we wouldn't have had this - all of this nonsense for the last 10 years." Ten years ago there were proposals on the table prior to a single UN sanctions, but the "UN decided to torpedo - the Bush Administration, John Bolton, decided to torpedo the agreement that was being reached with the Europeans at that time and now they live to regret it and now they understand that sanctions do not produce results," he added.
All economic and financial sanctions must be lifted as soon as Iran implements its agreed part, "we have an agreement," he said.
When asked about the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Zarif said that they are certainly working to defeat it, to the extent that the governments in the region, Iraq and Syria, asked "us" to be involved.
He expressed that this it is a regional issue first and a global issue later.
Zarif then called for international cooperation, and stressed that the world is not composed of the US and Iran only.
Earlier this week, on behalf of the Group of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) States Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), Zarif emphasized the role of the Treaty as the essential foundation for the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime as well as for promoting international cooperation and assistance in support of the inalienable right of States Parties to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
On the sidelines of the conference, Zarif received on Monday the US Secretary of State John Kerry for the first time after they laid out nuclear deal framework earlier this month limiting Iran's nuclear program to non-military purposes in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. The meeting came to secure an agreement to meet the deadline of June 30. (end) mao